Takes 2 and 3: German Honey Cake via Laura Ingalls Wilder

Previously I tried Laura Ingalls Wilder's recipe on German Honey Cake as she reported it from her visits to the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition.  Visit that post by clicking here.

ISBN 0-06-440081-6

It was not successful.  The cake or cookies came out as too hard to eat, and it wasn't until I had them stored in a bag with a damp paper towel for several days did they get reasonably soft enough to bite without too much discomfort.

I speculated that her liquid-to-flour ratio was off.  Comparing her ratio to other recipes I found both in my books and on the internet, I thought she needed to use 1/2 cup of flour instead of two cups.

So I tried the recipe again:  I beat the honey and sugar together for 20 minutes, mixed in the spices, mixed in the baking powder, then hand-stirred in the flour.  I definitely had a batter that I could pour into a well-buttered pan.  Take 2!

After 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F, I saw that the mixture was bubbling (almost bubbling over the edges of the glass dish) but not firm.  But I took it out and let it cool, just to see.  

Right out of the oven.

After cooling.

In the meantime, I made another batch of the (luscious) chocolate frosting, cooking it to 220 degrees F instead of the 230 degrees I did last time, and using more water to start with.  I also used some water to wash the sides of the pan, hoping to avoid sugaring.

Once it had reached temperature (but no threading showed up in the cool water test), I poured it over the mixture in the baking dish.

And then it sank.

Not surprisingly, the chocolate topping sank through the mixture.  What I had was a pan of goo -- spicy, sweet, tasty goo with chocolate syrup underneath -- but goo, nonetheless.  Failure.

Clearly 1/2 cup of flour was not enough to produce anything that resembled a cake or cookies.  My speculation was way off!  I let it cool completely and thought about what to do next.

Even though I could reasonably expect to separate most of the goo from the chocolate syrup, I decided it wasn't worth it.  The honey mixture's water content was changed from when I started Take 2, so I chose to just mix in more flour to the combined goo and syrup to see if I could get it to something that resembled a cake.

Tasty goo.

Take 3!  I stirred in 1/2 cup of flour by hand, a little at a time.  At that stage, the goo had turned into something that resembled a cake batter -- thicker but not too thick.  It was still soft enough to spread into a greased pan.  This time I chose a wide pan with short sides and baked it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees.

Goo with flour added.

In a wide, short pan.

It, too, bubbled up and got puffy.  It went over the sides of the pan.  After 15 minutes, I pulled it out (and cleaned the oven).  It cooled.

A mess, but not difficult to clean.

The result was dubbed "almost a cookie."  It was still sweet, spicy, and had a wonderful chocolate flavor throughout.  But it wasn't quite a cookie, more like a soft candy:  it held its shape, was sticky but not to everything, and had some bite resistance.  It also had an underlying taste of not-quite-cooked flour to it.  

It reminds me of the molasses lace cookies I've made before.

It held its shape!

Yet another failure.  However, I feel that I was closer to success!  I need to try Ms. Wilder's recipe again, and perhaps the chocolate topping recipe, too.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Trying to Get It Right!".